Fiscal conservatives launch awareness campaign for public union members

Public employees in New York could soon be hearing from a new initiative aimed at spreading awareness about funding for unions.

New Choice NY, a project launched by the fiscally conservative Americans for Fair Treatment, will start reaching out to public union members over the coming weeks and months to alert them of new options in the wake of the Janus ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a press release. The court decided that public employees no longer have to pay mandatory fees to their unions if they aren’t members.

“State and local government workers now have a right to choose whether to pay fees to a union – a right the nation’s highest court says is guaranteed by the First Amendment. New Choice NY will provide workers with unbiased and accurate information about how they can exercise that choice if they wish to,” New Choice NY spokesman Robert Bellafiore said in a statement.

“It doesn’t matter to us if workers decide to stay with a union or leave,” he added. “We believe New York’s public employees, armed with straight facts, are smart enough to make a good decision for themselves and their families. Let’s give them all the facts and let the workers choose.”

Following the ruling, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued an executive order that limited what contact information regarding public employees would be available through FOIL requests. The effort was billed as preventing “harassment and intimidation” of these workers, but critics of the order say it was simply designed to hinder outreach efforts like this.

NYSUT President Andy Pallotta said in a statement that his members and other public employees are already aware of their rights and wanted to stick with their unions.

“The only reason a group such as this would pop up is so Besty DeVos and her friends can try to lure members away from the unions that fight for them and their families every day,,” he said.

CSEA President Danny Donohue, who joined Cuomo at the unveiling of the executive order, said in a statement that his members will stick with their unions.

“The Janus case was just another scheme by greedy corporate CEOs to destroy unions and silence hardworking Americans,” Donohue said. “It’s not going to work.”